The 2019 Finat European Label
Forum brought together a large proportion of the extended label industry value
chain in Copenhagen in June. The agenda was very much focussed on business
strategies for a successful future – the core target for Finat, the
international association linking the label community.
The conference was introduced by
association President Chris Ellison, of OPM Labels & Packaging (UK), who
highlighted the key challenges today: economic uncertainty in Europe, and, in
the face of an ageing population and changing skillsets, the need for
initiatives to reach out to, and engage, the next generation of talented
business leaders, engineers and designers for the label industry. He outlined
the highly-relevant pathways Finat is working on to help members on a positive
journey to solving these issues.
Frederik Krause of TickoTryk A/S
(DK) welcomed delegates to the beautiful city of Copenhagen. As President of
the Danish Label Association – in which, he said, ‘all our members are very,
very active’ – he underlined the association’s efforts to attract young
participants to the industry.
‘If you want a breakthrough...’
‘If you want a breakthrough,
look outside your current environment’, challenged Hamish Taylor (UK) in his opening
keynote address to the delegates. Today an innovation enthusiast and a speaker
and broadcaster of international repute, his business career path has spanned
such leading brands as Procter & Gamble, Price Waterhouse, British Airways,
Eurostar, and Sainsbury’s Bank. He stood back from his varied experience base
to create, for ELF participants, a masterly and thought-provoking presentation
on how to change the way we think, learn, and understand about the needs and
wants of our customers.
Everyone is a customer Nothing
could be more appropriate for the label and packaging industry today; and
everyone in this complex supply chain, said Hamish Taylor, is a customer – including
colleagues in the company in which you work.
The key to success, he
underlined, is to act like a master thief -- to ‘steal ideas’ from one
situation and apply them in a totally different one. It is a proven, major
winning strategy, he has himself proved, for brand success. His wake-up call
was that you need to show you really care about your customers’ business, and
to get closer to them than anyone else. After all, he said, in the world of
labels and packaging, you ‘spend your time painting the face of the world’s
leading brands!’
Read the complete report in the September issue of Labels India - a special on Labelexpo Europe and Labels India's 100th edition
